• Metawatch

  • Categories

  • Customer Feedback

    I must say that your service is absolutely exceptional and I have recommended your company and products to several friends today; all are serious "printer" people.I retired last year and my friends are all into, or are still working in the photo industry. Sincerely,Gerhard

    _______________________________________________

    Dear, just to let you know than i realy appreciate your costumer service.
    Thank you
    Denis

    _______________________________________________

    Just a Thank you and all the best
    Grigore

    _______________________________________________

    Ce message est simplement pour vous dire que j'ai bien reçu la commande XXXXXX et que je suis très satisfait de la rapidité de la livraison et aussi de la qualité de l'encre. C'est la première fois que j'utilise de l'encre "autre que l'originale" et pour le moment je suis très satisfait. Soyez certain que je vais vous référez à mes amis et collègues de travail et c'est certain que je vais commander à nouveau de chez vous. Merci beaucoup.
    Stéphane

    _______________________________________________

    Je veux seulement vous dire un gros merci pour la rapidité avec lequel vous avez traité ma demande et aussi pour le petit extra en papier photos,c'est très apprécié.

    Céline

    _______________________________________________

    I received my order, thank you for your great customer service..
    Judy

    _______________________________________________

    Hello:

    It is not often people write emails or letters of praise but consider this one of the rare ones!
    I must say, ordering your product was about the easiest imaginable. Coupled with the fact that it arrived here basically “next day” I am thoroughly happy. To tell you the truth, I was expecting to have to go pay full retail for one black cartridge thinking that your’s would take at least a week to arrive but I was wrong, the order arrived before I could even go out to get one!
    Congrats people, I WILL tell all my friends and neighbours about you!

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 1 other subscriber

Inkjet Printer Ink III (Paper, Paper, Paper)

Posted on February 24, 2010 by kflack

Friday, January 05, 2007

Print Quality

The last in our series of Inkjet Printer Ink Technology review, we would be amiss if we were not to mention one of the most critical elements in the quality reproduction of photographic prints.

Paper

The true determining factor in print reproduction is to be able to represent the smallest possible color elements on the printed surface without distortion. Part of this is obviously to use less ink to create a smaller area required for ink deposition. This works fine but if your ink droplet is being absorbed by the “paper medium” it will dull in brilliance, and spread out the same way an absorbent paper towel works.

Contrast

Another key factor is contrast. We are all familiar with these features on our television sets, but what is contrast? Well, our eyes perceive abrupt changes in “Color” better than gradual changes. This means if we can sharpen the lines between color variance we will perceive a clearer picture overall. We have all seen some of the tricks the eyes can play with colors, and by simply placing 2 colors adjacent to each other they will either blend with each other or enhance their contrasting elements depending on their color.

Bright White is Best

Many of you may have noticed that when you purchase printer paper it comes with an identifying rating for whiteness. This is a key factor in the process of improving the quality of your inkjet printer printouts. By selecting the highest possible brightness of the paper is will greatly enhance the resulting color presentation. Note: This whiteness rating in many instances is a measure of the “Smoothness” of the paper. By presenting the flattest possible surface area (Smooth) it provides for a uniform reflecting surface for light there bye providing the “Brightest” possible output. (Makes sense doesn’t it) It also is influenced by the actual color of the paper, which is in many instances “bleached” to provide for a higher brightness level.

Coated Paper

To avoid the pitfalls of ink being absorbed into the print medium many paper (injet) manufacturers are starting to add a surface coating to the paper to prevent the absorption of the ink into the paper. This allow them to use smaller quantities of ink, increase resolution, and prevent the reduction of brilliance.

This is becoming such a key factor in enhancing print output that some higher end printers are incorporating “liquids” that are sprayed onto the paper surface to create a coating prior to the application of the inkjet ink. Think of it like painting your house. You first apply a base coat which seals the surface, and this allows you to apply less paint to the surface (Less Coats) to give a uniform result.

Paper Thickness

A key for the highest level of reproduction to ensure that you maintain the brilliance of the paper, it is important that it be thick enough not to allow light from the back to affect its appearance. This is most evident when using double sided printing and you can see what is printed on the opposite side. You’ll note that Photographic Paper is always like ‘Cardboard’ to ensure the maximum effect to reducing rear light scatter.

Thick, White, Coated Paper

Its a lot easier to say I want photo paper, but keep in mind in many instances when you are not printing photographs you paper needs/quality can be reduced.

1) Always buy the brightest paper available at the most reasonable price.
2) Ensure it is thicker if you intend to do double sided printing.
(Hold you hand behind a piece a sheet and see if you can see through the paper)
3) Coated is mandatory for photographic reproduction. (Note: Not all coated paper provides a suitable surface to allow ink to dry yet adhere to the surface properly. Beware of $1 Store photo paper)

Advertisement

Filed under: FAQ, Inkjet Info | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Inkjet Printer Ink II (Fade Resistance,Water Resistance)

Posted on February 24, 2010 by kflack

Thursday, January 04, 2007

So now you are educated about the basic properties of ink, and the trade offs of each different manufacturing process.

OEM Ink versus Third Party Ink

As the industry has evolved over the past ~10 years when Pigmented inks were first introduced by HP, Third part manufacturers first had to discover what was needed to be done to (in effect) copy the color reproduction properties of inks manufactured by the OEMs. This problem was made more difficult further by the price discounts needed to be maintained to remain competitive and then by ensuring that key Patented methods were not duplicated so as to open these manufacturers to lawsuits.

Third Party Inks meets the grade

After extensive development and investment many of the more reputable ink manufacturers provided the home user with clearly competitive products that met with similar functionality to those of the OEM manufacturers. I.E. The average user (Desktop environment) couldn’t distinguish between comparable products being marketed. It was during this time that many third party manufacturers became established organizations offering stability to a previously volatile industry.

The Next Challenge

With the advent of digital photography the capability and the desire to create you own photographic reproductions became evident, hence a new challenge was introduced to the marketplace.

Water Resistance/Fade Resistance

In order for the OEMs to provide photographic quality printers, they could no longer be content to provide output that could rival the appearance of Photographic Prints, but they also needed to ensure that longevity of the product could rival that of the older, yet more mature chemical photography processes. Here is when, and still does, a differentiation between manufacturers exist.

Each manufacturer now has to ensure that they develop color tables to match the appearance of your photo’s on your screen (Using RGB) technology, to that of your printer (using CMYK )technologies. In addition, the paper products used for reproduction offer varying level of brightness and permeability causing there to be variance with a single manufacturer just based on the paper being used. Now add to this the fade resistance and water resistance to provide for longevity.

Trade offs Abound

As we now have so many potential conflicting elements involved, each manufacturer has taken steps to provide for what they consider to be the key variables to ensure end user happiness, while taking advantage of their technologies advantages and disadvantages.

Epson leads the Market

At the current time Epson has taken a lead in the ink wars where they are offering their “DuraBright” inks. These inks, specially formulated allow for improved Water Resistance, and increased Fade resistance versus earlier ink formulations while maintaining increased overall brilliance. Of course these advantages will be short lived as competing suppliers constantly modify their formulations to compete with the latest innovations introduced by their competition. This is all good news to the consumer, as we can expect to see continuing improvements in head technologies, print speeds and quality.

Filed under: FAQ, Inkjet Info | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »